Thursday, January 26, 2012

Let me try to remember what's been going on the past couple of days. A few days ago we woke up, had breakfast, went shopping, made mango salsa, all before 9:30. I sure love waking up at 6:30 every morning. I get so much done! Anyway, that same night it was our turn to cook, so we found a recipe that sounded tasty, and went shopping for groceries and made the mango salsa. We had to let it sit for an our before marinading the chicken with it, which ended up working perfectly because Uncle Ed was making us all waffles at 9:30. After the waffles we zipped back to the house and used the juices from the salsa to marinate the chicken. Then we decided to take a drive down south. We went through Waileia and checked out some of the beautiful houses there. Here are a few of my quick snaps out the car window:

From there we drove farther south through the last lava flow on the island. This is actually one of my favorite places; I love looking at the lava and the cinder cones and the remnants of the volcanic activity.

After the black rock beach we went to Big Beach (not to be confused with Little Beach - the nude beach). We sat for a bit and read our Kindles. I got restless and Lowen and I went swimming for a bit. There's no great snorkeling around, and the waves aren't great for boogie boarding, so we just went and played in the waves for a bit. Then we realized that there were sea shell bits a bit further out, so we grabbed our snorkel gear and went and spent some time finding and diving for the sea shells. I took a little walk and took some pictures of the waves:

Then we came back to the condo and Lowen and I got to work on supper. Lowen bbqed the chicken, and I stirfried some broccoli and peppers with onions and garlic in lots and lots of butter. My mother in law made rice, and my aunt brought a salad. The dinner was a big hit! Of course no Maui dinner would be complete without a sunset.

The next day was a real adventure!! We woke up at 5:30 and got ready and went deep sea fishing!! That was quite the experience. We got to the boat, and the second mate was such a grump!! Haha. Maybe he was grumpy because he had to wake up at 4, or maybe that's just how he was. Oh well. Anyway, we took off (took off? What's the proper boat terminology for that?!) and headed out! There was a swell that came in that day, and we were going up and down these 10 - 12 foot swells. On the way out we saw oodles of whales breaching and doing pec flaps and everything. It was so cool. A couple of hours into the trip I was starting to feel disheartened because we weren't catching any fish. We went waaaay south past a part of the island that I have never seen before, and I really enjoyed looking at the lava flows and cinder cones. Because of the swell, the coast was all lit up with the spray from the waves on the cliffs. It was so neat to see the water shooting waaaay up every time they smashed the cliffs. We made our way out to a buoy that marked the good fishing spot. By that time, everyone was starting to get sea sick. Everyone but me, that is! For some reason my husband seems to think I get motion sick, but I proved him wrong on this trip! The captain was making fun of me because I was eating my sandwich while the others were all "feeding the fish" over the side of the boat. Anyway, speaking of fish, we started to get a few bites!! Those that were able all helped to reel in the fish. I reeled in 2 yellow fin tunas myself! It was my first time fishing, so I was happy to have been able to catch something.

Tandem fishing!

Lowen's catch

Uncle Ed's catch

Apparently I stick out my tongue when I'm reeling 'em in

My fish!!

We came home and cooked up our fish. It was sooooo tasty!!!

I still have today to tell you about, but it's 8:50 here and past my bedtime. I'll have to catch up later!

Monday, January 23, 2012

I know you've all been waiting to hear about what we did today on our vacation in Maui :) Last night we had spaghetti, salad and the most delicious bbq shrimp. Here we are all eating dinner:

One of the things I love about Maui is the sunsets. We were treated to a real show last night, and it was neat to hear all the conch shells blown right as the sun set.

This morning we got up and drove to Honalua Bay where we did some snorkeling. The snorkeling there is great, but the beach is nasty. It's all big, slippery rocks, and unfortunately we had a few bad spills trying to get in and out of the water. I saw a massive puffer fish - he must have been at least 2 feet long! That was the highlight of that snorkeling excursion for me. I love puffer fish. I also saw a few tiny cute guys, as well as oodles of other gorgeous fish.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

The bay is actually some guy's private property, and he has chickens and a cat that roam around, begging for food. Unfortunately none in our group were chicken lovers, so the chickens were less than desirable, but the cat was fun. He decided he liked the looks of my lawn chair and curled up and went right to sleep.

After snorkeling we went and wandered around Lahaina. I bought 2 sweaters (yes, I bought sweaters in Maui), and some souvenirs. It was soooo hot there, so I was glad to hop back in our air conditioned jeep and drive back. When we got back to Kihei, we got cleaned up and had dinner at Moose McGillycuddy's. I had a delicious teriyaki shrimp bowl. Uncle Ed and I got matching drinks.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Hey there! Remember me? I know it's been 3 whole months since my last blog entry! I will assure you I am still alive and well, just got bogged down with life at the tail end of 2011. Then I felt so overwhelmed with all I wanted to tell you that I didn't even attempt to catch up and the task of remembering everything seemed so daunting! But I've decided to just pick up and continue on, and I can add in some recap of the last 3 months as I think of it and feel like it.

Anyway, right now I'm in Hawaii looking at this:

Rough life, eh? :) We were worried we might not even make it, since Vancouver was experiencing delays and cancellations due to freezing rain. Lowen called WestJet, and they advised getting to the Calgary airport an hour earlier just in case. We kept an eye on the flights to Vancouver that day and were getting worried since the morning flights were being delayed, and one was even cancelled. But, by the time we got to the airport the 3:00 was on time and our flight, the 4:00, was on time too. So off we went!

I was so ready for a vacation, especially to a warm spot. Spending at week in -30 weather really takes it out of you!! But as we were leaving it was nice to see the Chinook arch over the mountains.

We arrived around midnight local time and went straight to bed. With the time difference it was 3:00 my time and I was exhausted!! We woke up the next morning around 7:00 and went to the market in Kahului. I bought a plumeria ring, a nice pearl and bead necklace, and a hat. I was feeling a little peckish and bought what I thought was a donut covered in coconut, but was actually a tuna sandwich that was deep fried with onions on the outside. It was soooo good.

Lowen and I each ended up getting a hat. Lowen picked his up, and went to go ask what the price was. The vendor said it was $20, and Lowen offered to pay $15, then the vendor came back with $18. Lowen said he'd have to think about it, and the guy then said he'd take the $15 for it. Sweet deal! Then I found a hat I liked with cute palm trees on it (I forgot a hat and got heat stroke last year and puked a lot, so I'm always careful to wear hats now!). Lowen said he'd barter the guy down on my hat too, and offered him $15. The vendor came back with $10 and Lowen said SOLD! :)

You should see the avocados they have here. They're MASSIVE!! Check out this pic of me with some of them (my mother in law suggested the pose. I didn't get too into it because I felt awkward doing it in the middle of the market... haha)

Here's a pic I wanted to take for my mom of the hibiscus bushes. This was only one of a dozen or so of them there, all in full bloom.

In the afternoon my mother in law and I went shopping to a quilt store. I ended up spending $128 (eek) but got a gorgeous quilt kit and some uber Hawaiian fat quarters.

The place we're staying at has such beautiful landscaping, and a fantastic view, as you've already seen. I love that there are flowers absolutely everywhere. All of the hedges and bushes and trees are just loaded.

Today we went to a Catholic church with Lowen's parents. I had never been to a Catholic church before, so it was neat to see something different. I got a little lost from time to time with what was going on, but it was fun. The church was beautiful. It had skylights and open walls so the air could flow through. There were also beautiful stained glass windows all around with Hawaiian scenes of hibiscus trees and the ocean and boats.

This afternoon we went to rent snorkel gear for the week, and just now we booked a deep sea fishing excursion for Wednesday. There are oodles of whales out there, and I'm really looking forward to seeing some up close on this trip!

Welcome!

Hello! My name is Esther and I live in Calgary. I am married to a wonderful man named Lowen, and we have a crazy cat named Cleo. In my spare time I like to crochet, hike, bake, ski, travel, and spend time with family and friends. Here's some of what's been keeping me busy....